Nobel peace prize goes to Green Party leader

Kenyan Deputy Environment Minister and peace activist Wangari Maathai has been named to receive the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize. Dr. Maathai is founder of the Mazingira Green Party and the Green Belt Movement in Kenya. In 2002, before her current appointment, she was elected to the Kenyan parliament on the Green Party ticket in the first free elections held in the country in decades.

"Wangari Maathai has been a good friend to Greens in the U.S. for many years," said Tony Affigne, co-chair of the International Committee of the Green Party of the United States. "Her recognition as this year's Nobel winner is no surprise to those of us in the Green movement who've seen her decades-long commitment to peace and ecological wisdom." The first environmentalist and first African woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Maathai was jailed in 1991 for working to stop deforestation in Kenya.

U.S. Greens, sending their congratulations to Dr. Maathai, noted her long career of activism on behalf of human rights, especially equality for women, democracy, peaceful resolution to Kenya's internal strife, and the environment. "Wangari Maathai showed how planting a tree can be a gesture of peace and liberation," said Jody Grage Haug, national co-chair of the Green Party. "Dr. Maathai, who has defied dictatorships, corruption, and corporate greed on behalf of the Kenyan people and the land they live on, is an example for all of us in the Green Party."